Thrice Defied
by LittleBabeBlue
Summary: In the end, when everything seems to be crumbling, and your world is toppling down, isn't the ultimate defiance just to keep on living? Not your normal Lily/James story. BEING REWRITTEN: ON HOLD FOR A BIT
1. Connections

**Connections**

She was in a wood. A cold wood. A **very **cold wood. She could see her breath in front of her, and not much else. The only light was created by a large silver animal ghosting between the trees ahead of her. It was moving fast. She had an irrational desire to follow it, common sense held her back, but it was a dream right? She began running towards it and it moved away from her at nearly the same pace. They ran until Lily's dream feet were aching from exhaustion and she felt like she couldn't get enough air, and still the stag still didn't stop. Not willing to let it out of her sight, she ran after the animal until she reached a clearing.

Suddenly it turned and she saw that it was a stag, larger than any she had seen before. It was joined by a smaller, more delicate deer with no antlers, Lily's own patronus, a doe. They nuzzled each other for a while before the doe looked back and seemed to call to someone. Seconds later, a small fawn appeared, tripping over his own small hooves and glowing brighter than his parents combined.

He walked straight up to the human Lily and nosed against her thigh, as she petted his head three things happened. She saw a sharply defined lightning bolt scar on the fawn's forehead, his emerald green eyes locked onto hers, and a small, certain voice resounded in her head. "_Mum."_

Lily Evans jerked awake in the Gryffindor dormitories, and saw a large shape by her bed. Fear chased away the contentment the dream had left her with until she recognized what was looming near her. Calming herself she whispered, "James! Go away! It's not safe." The stag just looked at her with large eyes. Large _hazel_ eyes. It suddenly morphed into a tall boy with tousled black hair. He peered at her through large, round glasses, their wire rims reflecting the moonlight coming through the window.

"Come on Lils. What's life without a little risk?" he whined. "Much safer," she cooly replied. She didn't mind James coming into her dorm and talking to her, in fact she secretly loved it, but she wasn't comfortable taking the chance that someone could see them. They had been going out since first year when they both realized that they had found their life mate. Dumbledore said that it was rare and that when it happened it could be dangerous. Remembering their conversation with him, Lily spaced out.

Dumbledore was waiting for them in his study when they knocked on the door, his purple robes warm in the firelight. He had made them comfortable in a love seat he conjured -although at that time, the students had thought it an odd couch- only after offering them lemon drops, which they each took. He had studied them and laughed when he realized why they were here, but seconds later his mood had turned somber.

"As you doubtlessly know, we are in the middle of a rather difficult war. Which is why it is such good news to hear of your situation. James, you always know if Lily is hurt or sad, correct?" The young boy nodded. "Lily, you can always tell where James is at any given time, is this also correct?" The short red hair bobbed in agreement.

"Can you hear each other's thoughts?" They shook their heads, both a little frightened that some one else could hear what they were thinking.

"You will soon enough. The two of you have formed a bond. This is called a Love Bond. Because you are so compatible with each other, the two of you will have been romantically attracted from the moment you first met. Muggles call it True Love. You will never be as happy with anyone else as you would have been with each other, it will always feel as if two puzzle pieces have been forced together instead of two matching. This produces a problem. These bonds are extremely powerful and, if broken, release an astonishing amount of harnessable magical power. The cause of the war we are in is a man called Tom Riddle." The two children didn't react. "You may also know him as _Voldemort._" Strangely it was James who reacted, while Lily didn't even blink. Sometimes growing up without magic was a good thing.

"If he finds out about you two, he may try to break the bond to release this power. If the bond is broken you two will change bodies and then pass away." This grave announcement was met with a shocked determination that they would protect one another. "On a happier note," Dumbledore continued, his pointed hat slightly lopsided, "you two will have a longer than normal life save an accident, have superior magical skills, and have something that no one on this earth as of now has."

They exchanged excited looks and clasped hands. "For now, I would prefer it if no one were to learn about your bond or even have any indication that you two love one another. It will not be easy, but I believe that this is the safest course of action, at least until you can sufficiently protect yourselves. I suggest avoiding eachother unless you have to. Come visit me every week to see how your doing. Now, it's after curfew, so off to your common room or Professor McGonagall shall have my head!" With that he had ushered them from the room.

"Lily. Lilyflower." James did a horrible imitation of a spacecraft, "Earth to Lils, come in Lily, earth to Evans." She pushed his hand out of her face where he had been waving it. "Go away James. I need my sleep. Besides, it's not right for a sixth year girl to have boys in her dorm."

"You didn't have a problem with it last night, or the night before that, or the night before that, or the one before that, or before that, or that, or that..." he trailed off as Lily clamped a hand over his mouth. "Hmmmm. Hey, Lily? How long do you think till we can tell the others? I hate having to pretend to be sarcastic and mean to you all the time. And I hate keeping it a secret from the other guys, as if they would sell me out." he chuckled. "Me too Jamie," she sighed. "But we can't let anyone know we can even stand each others presence until Dumbledore gives us the okay. Believe me, I wish it were otherwise too. Now please, go away and let me sleep."

"As you wish." He did an over the top bow and made a show of being servile. At her glare he stopped and gave her a quick kiss on the lips. At once a feeling of calm and rightness washed over them, like the universe fit together a little better now. They were used to it, for it happened every time they kissed, touched, or expressed their love for each other in any way. He gave her a soft look and quietly changed back into animal form and cantered down the stairs.

She stared after him, remembering the stag from her dream. She usually forgot most of her dreams, aside from the prophetic ones. She hoped that the day when she would have a son of her own to hold would come soon. Almost as soon as her wedding to James. Pushing aside all thoughts of the future and replacing them with ones of finishing the last two weeks of term before summer, Lily fell back to sleep.

**I re-read this and, my merlin, there were so many mistakes and typos I nearly threw up. This was my first ever fan fiction, and I want it to be good. And about reviewers, some things been bugging me. 1001 views and three reviews…. What is wrong with you other 998 people?**


	2. James, not Potter

**James, not Potter**

The first thing a rather grumpy Lily saw the next morning was a face. More precisely, the face of Hanna Thompson. Hanna was a bright, chirpy, blond girl who was also -oh the horror!- a morning person. A _loud_ morning person. As Lily slowly surfaced from sleep, her best friend chattered on about the day ahead of them. Then she said something that almost gave Lily a heart attack.

"I had a really weird dream last night. There was a stag in our dorm room and it was talking to you. Then it transformed into James Potter and you guys talked and kissed, but you would never, ever do that, so I guess it was more of a nightmare than a dream."

Thankfully, she took Lily's horrified face as shock over the idea of the two kissing and Hanna's ever active mind quickly moved on. "Come on, Lily. I'm hungry. Let's go to breakfast now or we'll miss it." Lily frowned, "Hanna, breakfast isn't for another half-hour." Her hyperactive friend still didn't calm down.

"Well than, I wanna go down to the common room and see Siri." Lily groaned, she honestly had no idea what had made her be friends with someone who was a girlfriend of that Marauder. _Although, _a small voice piped up in her head, _it does give you more time with James. _She crushed it down, it wasn't worth being around Sirius Black.

She prepped herself for the day, brushed her long, red, softly curling hair until it was passable, packed up her bag, and slowly made her way down to the common room. Lily groaned at the sight of Hanna and Sirius wrapped around each other, she knew that they wouldn't be surfacing anytime soon. She walked over to the three other boys who sat on the couch, cheering on their friend.

"Hey Remus, Hi Peter," she greeted two of them, "Potter." "Looking good, Evans!" he said with a trademark smile that made other girls melt. "Oh, grow up Potter." she shot back. She sent him a look, they had gotten good at it over the years and could read each others facial expressions with a startling degree of clarity. Now she filled her face with mild annoyance at Dumbledore, love for James, and exasperation for the couple beside them.

James silently chuckled as he got her message and surreptitiously checked to see that no one had been looking. Lily walked over to the couple and tapped her friend on the shoulder, "You know, for being so excited over breakfast, you sure don't seem to mind that you're missing it."

At that both Hanna and Sirius broke away from one another and ran to the portrait hole. Lily could hear the frightened screams that followed those two as they tore down the stairs to reach the Great Hall quite clearly. She shook her head at the antics of their two friends and the remaining Marauders plus Lily headed down at a much more sedate pace.

Arriving in the Hall she plopped herself down by the Marauders and sent a small smile to James, neither of them noticed Remus watching them as he had been doing for the last few days. As Lily ate, her mind returned to the dream she had had last night, about the deer. She was certain that it was a prophetic dream and that it concerned her, James, and their unconcieved child. She would have to tell James about the dream soon. She was brought back to the Hall as someone nudged her.

"What, James?" she asked sharply and turning her head saw that he had hit her on accident and was now choking on his toast. Several bags thudded to the floor and the Marauders and Hanna stared at her incredulously. "You..you called me James." he managed to speak past the burnt bread in his throat, "James, not Potter." Amid the amazement on his face she detected a warning about discovery, and some hope that they could tell everyone. She shot him a look that mimicked annoyance, but was actually a calm, flat no. "So, Potter? Nothing's changed."

They had had this bond for so long that they could have entire conversations without exchanging a word, and they had a hard time not breaking out in giggles when nothing had been audibly said. Neither of them saw Remus intently studying their faces. He had managed to catch the entire covert conversation.

They managed to get through their classes for Friday until late at night when they could be alone. James slipped on the invisibility cloak and crept from his dorm room, down the stairs and under the secret tapestry that only Lily and he knew about. He had no idea that he was followed.

A mane of red hair momentarily obscured his vision until he patted it down and pulled Lily into a hug. "I missed you," she said, "all day." "Me too." James replied then got quickly to the point, "Lily I think we should talk with Dumbledore about our situation." At her exasperated look he quickly explained further, "I still agree that we shouldn't tell everyone, but I want to tell the other Marauders. Sirius is clueless as usual, as is Peter, but I think Remus suspects something. We can protect ourselves now. Were old enough."

She nodded, "Yeah. I saw him studying us at lunch today, I almost thought he could catch our entire conversation." They stood in silence for a while before James pulled Lily closer. They looked into each others eyes and pulled themselves into a long kiss. A long kiss which was rudely interrupted when the tapestry was thrown aside and someone yelped in shock.

It was Remus. Of course it was Remus.

Lily and James jumped apart and hid their faces. James could feel Lily's face burning red through his shirt, and he knew that his face wasn't exactly pale either. "We have to explain," he muttered to Lily, "or he'll get the wrong idea." Remus was not slumped on the couch banging his fist into his head when Lily came over and sat next to him.

"Don't do that Moony or you'll lose Brain cells that you desperately need." Instead of calming down he lunged at James and slapped him across the face. Hard. "Ow! What was that for?" James quietly yelled. "How dare you do that to her?" He turned towards the redhead on the couch, "Lily, don't worry, I'll break the potion, it's okay. Just, uh, stay calm. James, when I fix her, you are going to DIE!"

Remus stormed. "Um, Remus, what's wrong?" asked Lily timidly. She had expected him to be shocked, but not violent. She now saw that his amber eyes had darkened considerably and was scared that he was letting the wolf inside him take over, it had only been a few days since the last full moon. "Lily, it's alright. Damn him for using amortentia!" James, who was now entirely lost, held his hand to his cheek to stop the stinging. Lily laughed as she finally realized what Remus thought was going on. "Remus, stop. He hasn't Imperiused me. If anything, I persuaded him!"

This brought the raging werewolf to a complete stop with his mouth hanging loosely. "Sit. There's something we need to explain." Remus sat down and stared at the two of them as Lily sat by James and wrapped her arms around her boyfriend, all but sitting in his lap.

Remus' eyes had lightened again and Lily hoped that he was calm enough to allow her to continue. "This is a long story," she warned him, "it could well take us a few hours." Here she paused to see if Remus was okay with that and he nodded.

"Very well. All my life, I felt like something was missing, something important. I felt like this until I got my Hogwarts letter. After that it eased considerably, but I still felt it until I met James on the train. He offered to help me with my bags and I let him, but we both reached down at the same time and brushed hands."

James picked up where she had left off. "Suddenly I felt like the universe was completely right. I spent the entire day on the train with you, Sirius, and Peter, but I couldn't get her off my mind. Later that night, in the common room neither of us could sleep so we both went down to the fire. We met each other at the bottom of the stairs. We talked and the weird feeling of contentment came back. This went on for quite a while."

Lily nudged James' arm and took over, "We went to Dumbledore and he explained it to us. Apparently, we are the perfect match for each other. We will never be happy with anyone else. It's a bond called a Love bond or true love. if this bond is broken, the wizard who breaks it will have a tremendous jump in their magical ability,the size of our magic combined.

If it is broken, both of us will die. If one of us dies, the other cannot survive for longer than a day. This is why Dumbledore wanted us to keep it a secret until we were strong enough to protect ourselves. You see, James and I have never hated one another, we've been going out since first year. We've been hiding it for our own protection." Remus looked shocked at the end of this and more than a little surprised.

He leaned back into the couch and gave them a long look. "Well, you certainly seem happy together." With that he pressed them for more information until he had a reasonable sense of the entire story. They talked long into the night, and when they finally went to bed, the rosy fingers of dawn were spreading across the windowsill.


	3. Unexpected Owls

**Unexpected Owls**

The next week of term passed by quickly. Students finished their exams and exchanged plans for the summer, both James and Lily were excited to go home, but were sad that they couldn't be together. Of course, both Lily and James achieved exceptionally high marks on all their tests and had been tipped off to the magical community as good prospects for employment when they got out of school.

Remus did well, Peter and Hanna were brought down by their abysmal Potions and Divination grades. Sirius, well, he _would_ have done well if he hadn't answered questions like "Name all the properties of moonstones and their uses in the magical world." with _I sure don't know, but I bet Moony does. _

When Sirius had told them about what he had done after the exam Remus had cuffed him over the head hard for it. Nursing a his aching head, Sirius walked up to James and stage-whispered, "I think it's his time of the month." Everybody who had overheard laughed as Remus then proceeded to chase him out of the castle and into the lake.

Sirius hadn't come back to the common room until Remus was asleep, by that time he was still soaking wet and in danger of catching hypothermia, he had to go see Madam Pomfrey, who gave him so strong a pepper-up potion that he was literally smoking at the ears for hours afterwards. Hanna was so overcome with worry about him, Lily had to stun her to get her to fall asleep. It was technically against the rules, but Lily didn't care anymore by that point.

The morning after exams had finished, the students rolled out of bed to find a larger than usual breakfast in the Great Hall. The six friends tucked into their food as the mail came by. Along with Lily's usual Morning Prophet, an officious, somber looking owl stopped by her. She stroked his head to reward him for bringing the mail to someone he had never met before and untied the letter from his leg. After that was done, the owl took off as though afraid it would be hurt if it stayed.

No one noticed the tears pouring down Lily's face as she read her letter until James realized that she hadn't spoken since the owl came. All of a sudden, she let out a horrific scream and ran from the room sobbing. All the heads in the Great Hall turned towards the heavy doors that slammed shut behind her. James lunged across the table, snatched up the letter she had left behind, read the first few lines and ran after Lily, leaving the parchment to soak up some spilled syrup. Hanna grabbed the now forgotten and sticky letter and read it out loud to the remaining Marauders, along with all the eavesdropping Gryffindors.

"Ms. Lillian Evans, we regret to inform you that your parents were killed in a raid on Muggle town by Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters. Their funeral service will be held by the Ministry of Magic on the noon of June 20th. You have been placed in the custody of your magical guardian, Mrs. Dorea Potter. Sincerely yours, Cornelius Fudge (Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes)"

The entire table was shocked. No one had any idea of how to comfort Lily when Hanna stood up with wide eyes and announced "I'm going to go find them. He may have been hexed unrecognizable, besides, she needs comfort, not some _boy_ asking her to go out with him."

With that Hanna imitated Lily and James and ran out of the Great Hall. The buzz of conversation slowly returned to normal as Dumbledore gave a small shake of his head to Professor McGonagall, who had just stood up to find her students. "Lily's responsible, Minerva. She won't do anything she will regret."

"It's not her I'm worried about, Headmaster." she responded with a small sigh. Her underlying sarcasm flew over Dumbledore's head and flapped around for a while until he realized what she meant and chuckled to himself.

Meanwhile, Lily was running across the grounds with her vision obscured by tears. She knew that James had followed her, but whether or not he had read the letter didn't matter to her right now. She stopped beneath the tree that offered an almost totally hidden meeting place, they had been using it to meet secretly during the day.

You couldn't see them unless you were swimming in the lake which very, very few people ever attempted, and even then you wouldn't be able to tell who it was if Lily covered her hair. She sat on the rock that formed a natural seat and curled up her body until she couldn't wind herself any tighter. Just as she was about to break from the inner tension, she felt a warm hand on her side, James.

He propped her head on his lap and covered her body with his cloak to protect her from the early morning mist that curled off the lake. She felt a hand stroke the side of her face and couldn't hold the tension anymore. It released itself in wild, gulping sobs. He softly stroked her hair as she cried her heart out until she relaxed herself beside him and he realized that she had cried herself to exhaustion. He conjured a warm, thick blanket and some pillows, and made a soft nest for the two of them in the hollow of the tree where they sat.

He continued to stroke her face long after she was asleep. The sun rose over the mountains and cast them into deep shade, it got warmer and he removed the blanket that covered them as he was beginning to overheat. Over the water he heard a weak, tinny voice shouting their names, "Lily! James! Hello! Where are you?" and recognized that it belonged to Sirius' girlfriend Hanna. He was torn between answering her, which would lead to the discovery of their hiding place, or to let her continue searching until she gave up, which would leave him to deal with Lily when she woke up.

He was spared the choice as he watched a procession of Merpeople go past. Merchieftainess Murcus was followed by many attendees, and by the very few words of Mermish James knew he could hazard a guess that they were off to either attack the giant squid, or drag Professor Slughorn underneath the water. He was guessing it wasn't the latter.

A small, shaken sounding voice spoke up, "Even in the middle of death, life moves on. Is it wrong that on the worst day of my life, I should be even a little happy?" James twisted his head to look at the pale girl in his lap, her eyes were still closed and her face was a blank mask. "Why would you be happy, Lils?" he asked her confused. "You're here with me." she replied. Neither of them were seen for any of their classes for the rest of the day.

By dinnertime everyone was extremely worried, the two best students in the school, ones the Dark Lord had an interest in, had vanished. Hanna and Sirius couldn't eat and were holding hands for comfort. Remus' face was paler than usual and he was very quiet. Peter, of course acted like nothing was wrong, and continued to worry about how he would break the news to his friends later that night.

Just as the desserts disappeared from the table, leaving nothing but a few crumbs behind, the great wooden doors swung open. Everyone turned and was stunned speechless as they saw the two students come in. James had his arm wrapped around a certain redhead and they were a little closer than it was necessary to walk, she was curled into his body and wasn't looking depressed_. _Well, not very much...

They shuffled over to the Gryffindor table and sat down. They weren't hungry, the young house-elf Dobby knew of their secret and had brought them some food so they wouldn't mind if they missed dinner. Their friends all turned towards them and gave them a questioning look, but Lily just buried her head in James' chest and didn't make eye contact.

As they looked at James, they didn't see the triumph that they had expected, instead they saw worry laced with happiness. This was rare, normally James was very hard to read. Dinner ended and the students exploded into the corridor, intent of getting to their dorms for a good night's rest, and to talk about the recent romantic developments in Hogwarts. All the Marauders went up the stairs, but only one was wondering what was going on. Peter was the last in and as soon as the door closed they plopped down on the four beds in the dorm.

By a happy coincidence, there were only four Gryffindor boys in their year, which allowed them to always have the dorm to themselves which came in useful when Moony went on his monthly excursions, and when Sirius brought in Firewhisky. Sirius had closed his eyes and was leaning against the richly carved bedpost when he asked,

"Does anyone want to tell me what's going on?"

The question had been directed at James, but Peter spoke up. 'Guys, I have a confession to make," they didn't pay much attention, Peter usually had a confession of some sort almost every week. Last time it had been that he was the one who had stolen Sirius' PB&J sandwich. " I'm leaving." This secured the other three boys interest on him, and he didn't like having so many stares at him.

"Why?" The word in James' was numb, but not as bad as it would have been if Sirius or Remus were going. "My dad's sick, he has cancer and there moving him to America for treatment. Even with magic they don't think he's gonna live out the year. I want to spend time with him while I... while I can." The normally pasty boy's rotund face was shining with sweat and looked as though it could fall in on itself.

"When?" Remus asked, his face tight.

"In three days." Peter replied.

"We'll miss you." This came, surprisingly, from Sirius.

"I'll miss you too."

After a moment of silence they put their hands together and said,

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." This was the groups official motto and they said it every night before they went to sleep.

"Mischief Managed."


	4. The Hogwarts Express

**The Hogwarts Express**

Ever since the letter came , people had been treating Lily like she was a glass doll, poised on the edge of a table. Everyone had been oddly quiet around her. Whispers followed her in the corridors, even Black had been subdued. For Black, that is.

Needless to say, Lily hated all of it. James understood that she needed normalcy to continue on, and he had done his best to keep things going the way had been. He got many weird looks and was called names reaching from "insensitive" to -well, they called him names.

He didn't mind, for although he was sad for Lily and it broke his heart to see how broken her spirit was, he couldn't help but be happy that he would be spending an entire summer with Lily, albeit a subdued one. As Lily had told him, the dead were gone, and no amount of mourning would bring them back.

Lily walked down the hallway to transfiguration, the only class she had any trouble in, although that was mostly because she was too busy watching James do magic to try it herself. It was the same for him in Charms class. At least it gave them the opportunity to "tutor" one another and spend time together.

She went through three trick doors, a secret tapestry, pulled her leg out from a sinking step, and arrived outside of the classroom. Lily took her seat and obediently looked towards the front of the room. After ten minutes, the students started getting restless, where was McGonagall? The only living thing in the room besides them was a tabby cat, curled up in the Professors chair.

"Maybe she's sick?" someone guessed.

"Maybe she's been kidnapped!"

This was, of course, Black. This was his best subject and Professor McGonagall was his favorite teacher. Lily knew that he would dearly love to rescue her from insane ninjas and receive House Points in reward.

For some reason Lily had never figured out, they always made up for all the points that they had lost while pranking, casting magic in the corridor, or just being plain weird. As Black started transfiguring his quill into a sword, loudly pledging that he'd save the fair maiden, (Lily snorted at that, McGonagall was neither fair, nor a maiden) from the clutches of a terrible dragon, the tabby cat uncurled from the chair and sat on McGonagall's desk.

It had the same square spectacle markings around it's eyes that the real McGonagall had, and Lily suddenly realized what that cat was, or,more correctly, _who. _The cat suddenly morphed into a stern woman in her fifties, with her black hair bound into a firm bun.

"Mr. Black, there is no need to save me from a dragon," she remarked mildly, "I am perfectly capable of doing so myself. Nevertheless, I suppose I'll have to give you a detention. Tonight at seven."

Although her tone didn't betray it, one look into her eyes would tell you that she was deeply amused. "Today we will be studying one of the most difficult pieces of Transfiguration. Animagi. Most of you will not succeed, indeed, if any of you produce even a half transformation I will be surprised. You must not attempt to do this outside of this classroom. If your form was a fish, and you only transfigured your breathing apparatus, you could well asphyxiate before anyone noticed the problem. I am only teaching this because exams are finished and I believe that students need something to do other than sit around all day. Idle hands are the devil's workshop."

She cast a stern eye around the classroom, making sure that each student understood what she was saying. She made sure that each Marauder was pinned by her best Death Glare before moving on. Lily was worried, how would the Marauder's cope, they would be extremely advanced, and if anyone suspected... Remus would be expelled, maybe put in Azkaban for sneaking out and endangering students.

The rest of the class passed in worried glances between the five friends, and purposefully botched attempts at turning their hands into a cat's paw.

The final days of term drew to a close and people started being sympathetic to Lily, not because she had just lost her parents, but because she was now expected to spend two months with that annoying prat James Potter who, everybody knew, she _hated._ Right? So then why was she sitting complacently in his carriage on the train home? She should have been on the other side of the train, trying to cram in a precious few, last, James-free hours with her friends.

Inside said carriage, Lily sighed as the amount of students trickling by the window of their train car didn't decrease. Peter had left already, and she was stuck in a carriage with three Marauders, one of whom she loved, one who was one of her best friends, and one who was currently running around with a lampshade stuck onto his head. Guess which was which. Bingo.

As James reached over and engaged in battle with the lampshade, which did not want to let go of Sirius' hair, Lily moved over to Remus. Peering over his shoulder, she looked at what he was reading, an Arithmancy textbook. Having no interest in that particular class, she sighed and pressed her face against the cold glass of the window. A knock on the door startled her from her thoughts, she looked up and saw her friend Hanna. "Hey, come on in!" Hanna glanced at the pink lampshade protruding from Sirius' neck and decided that it was safer in the corridor.

"Er, Lily, can I talk to you for a second?"

"Sure, why?"

With one last, strange glance at Sirius, Hanna and Lily moved out of the train car and walked through the corridor together.

"So." Hanna started.

"So?" Lily replied.

Hanna raised her eyebrows, "Oh, come on! You are not going to tell me that you were sitting in there with James Potter because you wanted to see how that lampshade battle turned out."

"It was originally a lawnmower."

"Okay... lawnmower-lamp.

And you better not have been in there because of Sirius. He's mine."

"No..."

"And you weren't in there because of your sudden desire to catch up on Arithmancy with Remus?"

"Um, no."

"So why were you in there?"

"I don't know! Why do you expect me to know?"

"Maybe because it was your body that was in there?"

"..."

What are you insinuating?" Lily accused.

"Is there something going on between you and Potter?"

"Ew! No! How could you even suggest that?"

"Because it might be true, Lily-flower! Ever think of that?**"**

"Don't call me that."

"..."

"Hanna, there is nothing going on between me and Potter, nor will there ever be! Final. End of discussion. Period."

Hanna merely sighed and pulled Lily back into her own carriage. "Just keep in mind that it's obvious he's in love with you. He really deflated his ego quite a bit at the end of this year, maybe you should give him a chance."

Upon seeing Lily's glare she abruptly changed topics.

"I don't care how you feel, but I am not going back into their carriage. Did you see what happened at the end? James turned Sirius bright purple trying to hex the shade off, I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't survive till tomorrow when Sirius see's his violet hair. Honestly, I love that man, but he can be _so_ obsessed with his looks..."

The girls spent the rest of the train ride talking about normal girl things. The subject of James Potter was not brought up again.


	5. School Again

**School Again**

The Potter's car drove up to Kings Cross station and parked. Although they were a pureblooded family, they did not despise Muggle things and were actually quite interested in them, though they did not compare at all to young Arthur Weasley who had applied directly for a Ministry department dealing with Muggles.

It was with light hearts that the three students in the magically enlarged back departed for their last year at Hogwarts. Remus had come over as often as he was able and Hanna had sent regular owls to Lily to make sure that she was still alive. Not that she hadn't had some close calls, the twins (how she privately referred to Sirius and James when they were pranking) had kept her on her toes.

After a few days, Lily had started tossing things through doorways and checking things for enchantments before she touched anything or walked through anything. Potter manor was huge, and there were pranks on everything, some of them from a few years ago that had never been tripped.

In the first week alone, she had been covered in boils, grown veela-like claws and fangs, sprouted wings, had her hair turned blue, been attacked by Pygmy Puffs, and pushed into the lake multiple times. Sirius and James had, in turn, been hexed quite thoroughly and it had taken Mrs. Potter some time to undo all the enchantments.

Lily had felt a small tinge of pride when Mrs. Potter, or Dorea as she had been requested to call her, had been unable to remove the balding hex she had flung at Sirius in retribution for messing with her shampoo. An effect, she thought privately, that she didn't mind so very much, once she had gotten used to it. It was only when they started to change colors around James that they became an inconvenience. But Sirius had nearly broken into tears when he was informed that he would be bald for the rest of the week.

Lily had taken plenty of pictures for later blackmail.

A they clambered out of the car, they made an odd collection of people. Lily's hair was lime green and in a pixie cut, James' skin and hair were bright pink with purple swirls, and Sirius had been hit with a rather creative hex that left him with an unattractive exoskeleton and multiple arms. This was the result of a relatively minor day at the Potter's.

A pink James and a buggy Sirius nonchalantly leaned against the barrier and tipped their nonexistent hats to a staring Muggle before falling through and then clearing the way for Lily and Mrs. Potter as they walked through the wall.

They stood in a group as they craned their necks to try to see their friends. Peter wasn't coming back until mid-December and had enrolled in an American academy, but Remus would be here, and so would Hanna. As if called up by her name, the girl mysteriously appeared and launched herself at Lily barely moments after the thought crossed her mind. Hanna then tackled Sirius to the ground, sitting on him.

"You look different." Sirius sighed. He liked Hanna quite a bit, but she could be somewhat of the stater of the obvious sometimes.

"Lily? Why is he pink?" Catching sight of Lily's head she screamed and pointed. "What did you do to your hair?!"

"It's just a stupid jinx, 'turn your hair the opposite side of the spectrum and cut it really short' courtesy of these two." she said in a singsong voice. Looking back at Sirius, Hanna wrinkled her nose,

"You know, I'm kinda glad I didn't kiss you until that hex wears off, it's really gross." Sirius looked like he'd been hit by a truck when she said that. If Lily didn't know better, she would have said that Sirius was a girl in guy's clothing. Damn, that guy was vain!

"Ah, buddy. It's okay." James said as he performed the counter curse and turned Sirius back into his normal -well, normal for Sirius-, two legged self.

"Can you do us now? Please! I don't know the counter curse for color changing." Sirius sighed, he didn't want all his handiwork to go quite so soon, but reluctantly took off the charm.

After many admonitions from various parents to try to not blow anything up, not hex the Slytherins, and not get placed in the hospital wing too much, Mrs. Potter had taken Lily aside for a quiet conversation.

"Lily dear, I'm sorry if this seems forward, but please, give James a chance this year. He's really grown up since last year, you even said that he wasn't so bad over the summer, except for the pranking. Even then he's really toned it down. Please, give him a chance. He really loves you."

"I know" Lily replied, "I think I could love him too."

When James asked why his mother was smiling so brilliantly as they boarded the train, Lily just shrugged and moved past him. Sirius had collected Remus from the bathroom and was now dragging him to a five sat down and Hanna gave Lily a knowing look as she sat next to James comfortably. Remus had holed himself up in the corner and Hanna curled around Sirius possessively as girls trickled past the doors to look at him, so really, Lily thought, I had no choice about where to sit. Idly, Lily realized that she would have to have a talk with Sirius soon about where her friend's relationships were going. The talk eventually moved to Quidditch, which Lily wasn't too enthusiastic about, so she let her mind wander.

_~Flashback~___

_ "Black!" Sirius jumped at the noise and started burrowing into the squishy couch, trying to hide himself. __  
__ "I am going to kill you!" Lily came running out of the shower, and down the stairs in a towel, not caring that she was dripping everywhere. Though he later denied it, a feminine, soprano whimpering noise squeeked out of Sirius' throat. An angry Lily Evans was not something that you wanted to see. Especially when she was angry with you. ___

_ "Lils, what's wrong?" James asked her in as neutral a voice as possible, though it shook a bit. Even he was so scared of her that he didn't realize that he was looking at Lily Evans, the Lily Evans, his Lily Evans, in nothing but a towel. He couldn't see anything wrong with her, but... her hair, something about her hair. It was a redder red than normal, it was like a crayon. ___

_ "How dare you put Mood Potion in my shampoo!" she yelled at Sirius who was now curling up on the couch cushions hoping to disappear, and protecting his head. James had an idea and pulled out his wand. He hit Lily with a strong cheering charm and her hair instantly turned bright yellow. __  
__ "Well, Lily, you're just going to have to wash it out." He said, but before she could start screaming at him, he flipped his wand around and offered the handle to her. From the cushions came Sirius' muffled voice, mockingly heartbroken, __  
__ "Prongs! I thought we agreed, brothers before girls! How could you betray me like this." ___

_ Lily's hair turned bright red again from the yellow it had temporarily been as she whirled on Sirius, who had made the mistake of raising his head. A bald Sirius Black could be seen moping around the manor for the next week. Lily had cursed his hair off.___

_~End Flashback~_

That was fun, Lily decided. Too bad the summer was over and she couldn't hex Sirius permanently anymore. One Marauder was bad enough, and Sirius couldn't corrupt James while he was interacting so closely with Lily. But at school, majority rules in that specific group and Sirius would find a way of convincing both James and Remus to help his revenge.

Suddenly Lily remembered something, she shot up quickly and grabbed James, ignoring his surprised face as she yanked him out of his seat. She called over her shoulder as the doors slammed closed behind them, "Head duties." They raced down the corridor and entered the prefects room out of breath but only a little late. The prefects looked on in amusement as they gasped out instructions and passed out passwords. As they left, Lily could have sworn she heard one say,

"They were probably snogging in their compartment." Judging by the color of James' face, he had heard it too. Lily fixed the prefect with her best death glare, which was actually quite scary, but not as bad as Severus'. The doors closed behind the Ravenclaw and an awkward silence descended.

Finally James got impatient, "Are you going to keep me waiting forever, Lils?"  
James closed the shutters and pulled her into a kiss. When they both got dizzy for air they separated but still held one another,  
"It's been a long time since I've done that," he whispered, "too long."  
A few more minutes of holding one another close passed before they had to leave for their carriage. They returned, both a little mussed and pink faced, but no one noticed. As Hanna engaged Sirius in a heated dispute over what desert flavor was better, Chocolate or Caramel, lily ripped out a paper from her journal and wrote on it in her narrow, loopy cursive.

_ As we were a bit busy earlier, do you think that we should reveal ourselves this year?__  
_  
Passing the note to James, their hands touched for longer than as necessary. Stronger, more masculine handwriting took over the page.  
_I don't know, I'd really like to, but maybe we din't have to tell anyone about the bond and just go out together?_

_I can always say that you've changed over the summer. Only Remus would know something's off, and Hanna's too wrapped up in Dog Face over their that she wouldn't notice if you proposed to me. _

_Is that an invitation?__  
_  
Lily looked up to see a familiar crooked grin in place, with just a hint of seriousness in his eyes. She gave a small smile at him before whacking him over the head with her journal. The sudden movement caught hanna's attention, as well as James' glasses. They flew off and landed in the luggage rack, where the residents of the carriage had good fun trying to get them down as James staggered around yelling about how he was blind. The rest of the train ride passed quickly. The girls took turns being shooed and shooing others of the opposite gender out of the carriage while they changed.

_

After the Sorting had finished, it's usual song mixed with warnings about the war, and house unity, Dumbledore stood up to speak. "I am pleased to introduce this year, a new Defence Against the Dark Arts and Dueling Professor, Professor Contrus Mali." Said Professor stood up and accepted the applause.  
After a smattering of applause Dumledore spoke again. Instead of telling them all to 'tuck in', as they expected, he raised his voice again,  
"The school governors have brought it to my attention that Hogwarts is not a well balanced school. We teach academics, nothing more."

Murmurs had broken out among the student body, all thought that Hogwarts was just fine the way it is.  
"For one year, and one year only, as a test run, all students will be required to take three extra classes. More information will be passed out now," he waved his hand and piles of parchment flew to each table.  
"Please contact your Head of House by tomorrow evening, this will give you one day to make your decision. As such, you will not be getting your schedules tomorrow morning, but the day afterwards. If there are any questions, feel free to ask our Head Boy and Girl, any prefect, or your Head of House. Heads, please meet with me later. Tuck In."  
Food appeared on the golden plates and Lily looked over her parchment as she ate, apparently she had to choose one Physical class, one Music class, one Art class, and one Magical Elective. Looking down the list of choices she could already see what she was going to pick.

Art of Magic sounded interesting, it appeared to be all about timed magic and visual, artistic enchantments, it sounded by far the best Art class to her. She was absolutely hopeless at musical instruments, but she did have a reasonable voice and was fairly confident that through the selection process they were using -one on one auditions- she would get into some level of choral capability.

She immediately knew that she would hate whatever Physical class she was placed in. James was lucky, being on the Quidditch team apparently fulfilled whatever Physical requirement was needed, so he only had to take three extra classes. She would just sign up for older beginners P.E., a mix of Years 5, 6, and 7 after the rest of her classes and before dinner.

For a Magical elective she could choose between Healing, Dueling, Wandless Magic, and and Communications. After delibeating between Healing and Communications -which would require her to learn at least one other language and it's customs fluently- she chose Healing. In these Dark Times, it would make her feel a little more secure if she was able to fix at the very least minor injuries.

Lily sighed as she made her choices and prepared to talk to McGonagall the next day.

After dessert had vanished and the Prefects began leading people to the dormitories, Lily and James talked with the Headmaster and got more information on their classes to share with their housemates. Lily was pulled through the portrait hole by an overexcited Hanna, "Lily, I want to know everything! Don't leave anything out."

"About what?" Lily said, she was really, truly confused. Hanna was by now, pulling her up the stairs to their dormitory.

"How did you survive? You hate James."

"Um, well, after the first couple days we kinda...called a truce."

"A truce?" Hanna raised a disbelieving eyebrow, sparking a wave of envy in Lily. When she tried to do that, she just looked like she was going to cry, a trait she found incredibly frustrating, and James found incredibly endearing.

"Yeah," Lily was warming up to her story, "he said that he wouldn't ask me out as much anymore or try to impress me, or publicly humiliate me with declarations of love, and that he would stop hurting Severus," at this Hanna raised the other eyebrow.  
"Hey, I can't call him Snape, but at least I'm not still calling him Sev," Hanna's face smoothed back into a more normal expression, "and I said that I would give him a chance to be friends."

"Friends? Lily, that boy wants to be more than friends with you."

"I know, but it's all I'm willing to give him right now."

Hanna sighed and moved the conversation to the new classes. Lily knew that hanna desperatley wanted both James and lily to be happy and that wold only happen if Lily fell for James. The only one they had together was Beginner P.E. 2, but they would have all their classes at the same time. After an hour of chitchat they lay back in their four-posters and fell fast asleep.


End file.
